Biggles: Adventures in Time

Jim (Alex Hyde-White) is a catering manager with a busy schedule. Yet, one day, a strange man comes calling at his house, in a thunderstorm. He's secretly an officer, Colonel Raymond (Peter Cushing) from World War I! Whoa! He tries to warn Jim about future strange happenings but the catering man doesn't listen. All too soon, Jim is back in time, flying an aircraft in WW I and hanging out with Bigglesworth, Biggles for short (Neil Dickson). That's because, as the colonel tried to explain, he is Biggles "time twin". Thus, never knowing when, Jim is transported between two time periods. Naturally, this upsets his food business while he gets into many a hair-raising situation as a pilot. Sometimes he's captured and interrogated, while he and Biggles face even firing squads. Is this supposed to be fun? This movie is not really as large as its title indicates but its a pleasant enough experience. Based on a long ago set of popular British novels, its escapades probably worked better in print form. Hyde White is cute as the poor soul with the time travel problem while Dickson is quite dashing. Costumes are fine while special effects are adequate. All in all, there are worse ways to spend an evening but don't harbor high expectations before a showing.

...what a pity the original movie wasn't worked on with the same skill and dedication.

I am a very big fan of the books. I read 'Biggles of 266' when I was aged 10 and 29 years later I'm still reading the adventures.

What a waste of the Biggles movie license.

The film wasn't all bad, though. Neil Dickson's portrayal of Biggles was spot on. The supporting actors did a pretty good job as well. The production design was excellent (well, the 1917 bits, anyway). That takes care of the good points.

Where the hell did they drag that soundtrack up from? Nasty is what I call it. I actually cringed during the film, due to inapropriate music.

The stunts were mostly unnecessary ego-boosting cliches.

The script was a total nightmare. Either copy Indiana Jones OR Back to the Future, not BOTH! If they'd cut the 80s bit out, cast Hyde-White as an american reporter and kept the secret weapon bits in, I would have no quibble with this film.

I would recommend buying the DVD if only for the unintentionally hilarious documentary. "..we thought a big star would've 'unbalanced' the film..." you don't say!!!

£3.99 at WH Smiths - buy it now! The spirit of Edward D Wood Jr. lives on!

I always believed I'd grow out of this film, but that hasn't happened yet. True, the plot's impossibly silly, but when I first watched the film, that didn't matter to me. Frankly, it still doesn't. Don't watch this film if you're looking for some serious intellectual stimulation. However, if it's great fun, great music and a major dose of eighties nostalgia you're after, this could be the one for you. One last thing - the main theme "Do you wanna be a hero" still sends shivers down my spine every time I see the opening credits.

I like this movie, having just seen it for the first time, and I have never read the original Biggles books. But, it's clear even to me that the film hasn't attempted to stay true to the original stories.

Nethertheless I found great entertainment value in this movie, which is simply to be enjoyed in a rather light hearted way it seems.

No doubt this time-travel based production was slip-streaming behind the great success of Back to the Future, and it's a real roller-coaster ride and a fantastic culture clash between the 1980's and WWI eras. Any such movie released back in the mid-eighties should have done well at the box office, at least on paper.

This film really is so eighties though, from the synthesiser-heavy intro music, down to the "punk scene", and the strikingly bleak grayish hotel lobby and eighties typefaces, that even people like myself who grew up in the eighties will probably feel more at home in what seems like the more "normal" WWI scenes.

Was the eighties really that potently eighties? Obviously, it was, but it didn't seem like that at the time of course.

So for me, this film has been a trip back in time to the eighties, and it fits in so well with a great sequence of other really enjoyable films I watched back then in my teenage years. I can't believe I somehow didn't see it at the time, but I'm really glad to have seen it at last in 2007.

The aircraft scenes were highly enjoyable, and it's always good to see Peter Cushing too.

7/10 from me.

In answer to the insistently-asked question in the theme tune - yes, i do indeed want to be a hero, as evidenced in my bravery in admitting that this is, and long has been, a favourite film of mine.

This is a one of those films many people refer to as a "guilty pleasure", well - i feel no guilt or shame in declaring my love for this movie. It's simply brilliant fun. Great action adventure larks, with likable characters, a neat time-travel plot, a groovy '80s theme tune, and an appearance by genre legend Peter Cushing (in his final screen performance). Honestly, what more do you need? Oh, you need more, do you? OK, then: Francesca Gonshaw, the really cute barmaid from early seasons of 'Allo 'Allo, as a Belgian resistance fighter (i swear, if she's said "Listen very carefully, i shall say zis only once" in that accent, my mind - and indeed my pants - may have exploded). Also, for all of us watching Doctor Who in the mid to late '80s, roles for both James Saxon and Marcus Gilbert. How'd'ya like them apples?

Absolutely sublime nostalgic fun. To be watched with a few ales, alongside "The Living Daylights" or "Young Sherlock Holmes and the Pyramid of Fear". Bliss!